"Women have always been leaders-- as home makers, caretakers of both the old and the young and in numerous other roles. It is in organisations, in decision making roles that women need to lead today," she said.
'We need to take decisions only as a woman can,' Samson, who is also the Chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification, said in her inaugural address at CII Kerala's 'Convention on Women Leadership' here.
India provides wonderful opportunity as a nation to its citizens to be who they are. 'It is how you balance the explicit with the subtle, that will help you win many battles in life, Samson said.
Delivering the Keynote Address, Jennifer McIntyre, US Consul General, Chennai, said leadership was about generating leaders and that is what women should aim to be.
"It seems impossible to believe now, but as late as 1972, women diplomats were even required to quit the Foreign Service if they got married," she said.
But now there is a deliberative albeit gradual shift in the focus of the state Department leadership to bring in more women and minorities.
In US, women comprise half the workforce and own close to 8 million businesses, accounting for $1.2 trillion of GDP. The future job growth in America would be created primarily by women-owned small businesses, she said.
As India expands in the next decades as an economic and global leader, the role and participation of India